Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I was out of town, literally, for all but about five days in the past few months... which makes it hard to blog about the Plaza... but, I'm back now. Let's see what we can drum up! I'll be out tomorrow night diggin' up somethin' to rap about.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I'm so excited!! I got my Plaza newsletter in my inbox today, and there's a short write up about a new eatery coming to the Plaza. It's called Ingredient and it's a locally-owned, small chain of restaurants that specializes in salads, sandwiches, small pizzas, that kind of thing. The idea is they offer a huge variety of ingredients and then you pick and choose what you want in your salad or pizza, etc. I've eaten at the Lawrence location twice and both times the food was amazing, and it's also reasonably priced. Their Plaza location will be near reVerse, and they're suppose to open in the fall... I can't wait!!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The great Orwellian fear that quaked us in our boots a few years ago was that world where businesses would be able to jingle our phones whenever we were nearby, prompting sales and whatnot.

Can you imagine walking down 47th Street on the Country Club Plaza if this was the case?

BZZZZ! Half off a book at Barnes!BZZZZ! Free appetizer at 810!BZZZZ! 10% off at Pottery Barn!BZZZZ! Free socks with $20 purchase at GAP!

And... this would happen in a mere half-block! Oh, the HORROR!

So when I stumbled on the advertisement that has been placed on the Armani storefront, I was glad that someone had figured out how to take advantage of the constant foot traffic that walks along 47th. As you can see in the picture (above) they are giving you $10 off any purchase.

The response to the text says:

"Take $10 OFF any purchase, ends 3/15/09. Show txt instore or use AX10DL @ armaniexchange.com. 1 use p/day. Exclusions apply. Fwd it on!"

I find it to be a clever use of the advertising medium. You can walk in now or go online later. You also have the ability to send it to a friend... because they've given you options on how you can use it, they are more apt to give you a positive experience, which may lead to you actually passing it along to a friend!

"Those of us who live in the Country Club Plaza neighborhood witness incidents like mine frequently. Drivers are oblivious to pedestrians trying to cross the street in a crosswalk. Many of us have begged Plaza management, the city and the Police Department to make crosswalks more visible to drivers by striping them, adding signs, giving tickets or even lowering the speed limit."

IMHO, both drivers and pedestrians need to take some responsibility. I've lived on the Plaza for four months now and I regularly--almost daily--walk down to the local coffee shop to work on the book that I'm writing. I often end up standing in the middle of the street trying to make eye contact with the car that is approaching the crosswalk. I've even bitched about crossing 47th.

BUT, THIS IS MY CHOICE.

PEDESTRIANS: If you think it's dangerous to cross at intersections that don't have a stoplight, then walk an extra block or two to 47th & Jefferson or 47th & Wornall/Broadway where the traffic lights will stop traffic for you. Problem solved.

DRIVERS: Just be a bit more aware that the Plaza is a highly foot-trafficked location and slow down. Problem solved.

Spending money on lights and signs to make drivers more aware of the crosswalks seems plain silly. Why do we always think that we should fix things with more signage... don't you see enough of it in your day? Isn't there so much of it that it all gets lost in the mix anyhow?

When I'm in a crosswalk, this is what I do... I make eye contact until a driver comes to a stop and while I'm crossing the road, I give them a smile and a wave. Last week, I even did a goofy pose for a picture while a woman leaned out of her window to snap a photo.

Instead of introducing more signage, make someone smile and they'll be much more likely to remember that there are pedestrians walking around the Plaza!

If you really want to get serious, then organize your own fun weekend campaign where we gather to cross the street and we laugh and sing and smile and carry big signs that say, "Remember that people walk these streets, too!"

Sunday, February 22, 2009

This is not a photo of the DVD that I got out of the Country Club Plaza McDonald's Redbox location yesterday... I totally should've taken a photo of it, but it didn't dawn on me to do so. Sawry.

The one that I got out of that machine was nasty. It had soda spilled on it and the hinge of the jewelcase was in need of a major dose of WD-40. Straight nasty.

To top it all off, the movie ("Hancock") went batty after about 20 minutes of viewing and it never recovered all the way to the end, despite a healthy cleaning. There was no chapter that you could skip to that wasn't pixelated and down with a bad case of the movie hiccups.

Redbox on the Plaza. FAIL.

I sent them a support email, we'll see how that goes.

UPDATE: They sent me an email in reply with a promo code for a free rental.

Hardly statistical significance here, but enough to determine that the Plaza is all about the TOTAL DRINKEATSHOPPEOPLEWATCH Experience. If you'd like to shorten that phenomenon, then you can call it the TDESPW Experience. Word.

Great presentation about charter schools last night at the Truman Forum of the Plaza Library, specifically the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) system of education that started just a handful of years ago.

KIPP focuses on longer school days, teaching manners and bringing the family into the equation as part of the team that has a specific, defined goal. They prefer to say "This is the class of 2009 because that is when they will start college, not when they will graduate from high school."

The difference in striving toward a beginning instead of an end is a fantastic mind-shift. In my studies with Dr. Rapaille ("The Culture Code"), we learned a lot about creating a story that has a specific goals and rewards on a time line towards a mission.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Okay, I've seen many a fantastic street drum crew in Chicago, San Francisco, New York City... and I've been asking for "entertaining street performers" on the Plaza for those are the only type that I'll consider for contribution.